Tuesday, March 26, 2013

When my 11-year-old daughter announced that her homework assignment for Spanish class was to make an Easter-themed pinata, I'll admit I was a bit apprehensive. Although I like crafts, this one was for a grade, and I certainly didn't want to steer my child in the wrong direction! My daughter wanted her pinata to look like a striped Easter egg, so we learned how to do this project together.

We rather rapidly learned what does not work. I would not suggest mixing rice flour and water for your bonding agent. Regular wheat-based flour might work, but rice flour does not have adhesive qualities like wheat-based flour. Our plan B had much better results as we tried plain old white school glue mixed with a little water. Frankly, I didn't measure, I just squirted about four tablespoons of glue and added a little bit of water. We covered the bowl of glue/water mixture each day and did not have any problems with the mixture drying or evaporating. We just stirred the mixture with a plastic spoon before starting each day.

If you are going to make a pinata, plan to work on it for several days. I banned my two younger daughters from touching the project and surrendered to a messy kitchen for a week, but we all survived and my 11-year-old was the proud creator of a colorful egg-shaped pinata at the end.

Saturday, March 23, 2013

This Easter treasure hunt offers some fun variety combined with solving riddles, hunting Easter eggs, and finding a hidden message! My three daughters, ages 11, 9, and 5, enjoyed this scavenger hunt with lots of surprises along the way.

You will need Easter eggs in multiples of 12 up to a total of 48 eggs and one basket for each child or team of children. This scavenger hunt may be played with one or more children and is well suited to indoor or outdoor play, depending on the weather and your own needs. You can vary the difficulty of the game through your choice of hiding places for the eggs.

While the children are in another area...

Print the 12 rhyming clues and cut on lines. (Click on the images below to enlarge and then use File - Print.)

Print answers to the clues if needed.

Print any or all of the color-coded EASTER SUNDAY cards and cut on lines, placing one letter inside of each Easter egg.

Hide the Easter eggs.

When the children return...

Read the clues and ask for answers - arrange the kids on teams or call on children individually. (I had my three children to take turns so that each would answer four clues.)

After all clues are answered, give directions about the number of eggs each child should find. For example, I have three children and hid twelve eggs, making the limit for each child four eggs.

After the kids find all the hidden eggs, have them open the eggs to discover the hidden message. If you have printed more than one color, have the kids sort the letters by color first.

While playing this game, the kids can learn about teamwork, colors, counting, reading, rhyming, and perhaps a few new things about Easter.

About Me

I currently serve as a Faith Community Nurse at a local church. This is an ever-changing role in which I visit one-on-one with clients, provide education and advocacy, develop fitness challenges and lead group exercise classes, coordinate an annual health fair, and encourage health promotion and disease prevention within the community.
Before becoming a FCN, I worked as a staff nurse at a Bone Marrow Transplant Unit in a large teaching hospital for 17 1/2 years and have been teaching group exercise since 1999.
I developed the first online curriculum for nurse aides in North Carolina and still develop and teach some online classes for a local community college.